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From left, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts bench coach Bob Geren, first base coach George Lombard and third base coach Chris Woodward look on from the dugout during a recent game at Dodger Stadium. The coaching staff is not panicking over the team’s slow start this season. (Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images)

SAN DIEGO — There are telltale signs of a hangover – a pounding headache, unsettled stomach, dizziness.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts does not believe his team’s 5-9 record going into Monday’s game qualifies as one.

“No, not really,” said Roberts who sought advice this offseason from people in the Seattle Seahawks and Golden State Warriors organizations about the difficulty of rebounding from a deep – and ultimately unsuccessful – postseason run.

“I’ve heard about how it can be tough – the hangover-type thing. We’re mindful of it. But I don’t think our record right now is reflective of that. We just haven’t played good baseball, to be quite honest.”

Roberts called the slow start that landed the Dodgers in last place in the National League West “not ideal” but joked that “I haven’t panicked yet.”

“There have been spurts where we hit well and there’s been spurts where we pitched well, played defense well,” Roberts said. “But it hasn’t really been synced up. I think the record reflects the (lack of) consistency we’ve played with. The players – it’s a lot of the same guys (that posted the best record in baseball last season) so it’s just a matter of us going out there and being consistent to win a baseball game.”

Matt Kemp is not one of those same guys, but he offered his own perspective before Monday’s game.

“It’s been 14 games,” he said. “There’s only 190,000 games to go – I think I said 170,000 last time. We’re still in it.”

BACK HOME

Kemp has gone home again and again this month.

This week’s series in San Diego brings him back to his first home away from Los Angeles for the first time as a recycled Dodger and the second time since the Padres traded him to the Atlanta Braves in midseason 2016.

“Do I have any memories?” Kemp said Monday when asked about returning to Petco Park. “I met a lot of great people here. I had some fun. I hit for a cycle here (the first in the Padres’ history). That was pretty cool.”

Last year’s return to San Diego with the Braves was not a good memory. Kemp went 1 for 12 with four strikeouts in that June series. And he was not greeted with open arms.

Kemp’s exit from San Diego was followed by acrimony. In an article written by Kemp for the Players Tribune, he said he had “lost some of my love for the game” while playing for the Padres and acknowledged that he had gained a reputation as a bad teammate there. Padres chairman Ron Fowler responded to the article by calling it “a bunch of BS.”

Kemp has been nothing but upbeat since returning to the Dodgers this year and wisely wanted no part of resurrecting any bad blood in one of his former homes.

“I can care less about anything bad anybody says about me,” he said. “If you talk to my teammates about certain things, I’ve never been a bad teammate or anything people try to label me as. People say what they want to say. I’m just happy where I’m at now.

“I love my teammates and I think my teammates love me.”

Boos outnumbered cheers when Kemp took his first at-bat Monday. When he hit a three-run home run in his second at-bat, the cheers of Dodgers’ fans in attendance took the lead.

For the record – the Dodgers play a four-game series in Atlanta in late July.

ALSO

Dumped by the Wasserman agency in February, outfielder Yasiel Puig has chosen new representation. The Beverly Hills Sports Council announced Monday that it had reached an agreement to represent Puig including “managing his personal brand and philanthropic efforts.” Puig established the Wild Horse Foundation in 2016 to help disadvantaged children. Puig, who will be eligible for salary arbitration this winter, will be represented by Dan Horwits and Carlos Suarez.

The Dodgers are off Thursday. Roberts said the rotation will remain the same with each pitcher getting an extra day off before his next start. That lines up Rich Hill, Clayton Kershaw and Hyun-Jin Ryu for this weekend’s series at Dodger Stadium against the Washington Nationals.

Bill Plunkett has covered everything from rodeo to Super Bowls to boxing (yeah, I was there the night Mike Tyson bit Evander Holyfield's ear off) during a career that started far too long ago to mention and eventually brought him to the OC some time last century (1999 actually). He has been covering Major League Baseball for the Orange County Register since 2003, spending time on both the Angels and Dodgers beats.